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Guide Plant Breeding Technician IT/Company goals
Guide Plant Breeding Technician IT ;* Company Goals ;* Outline ;* Setting up a work space ;* Working with cereals ;* Working with beans ;* Working with Maize ;* Using plant breeding software ;* Experimenting ;* Equipment ORIENTATION The Company’s Work :For the purposes of this document, the Company name will be referred to as GENERIC SEEDS Co. or just GENERIC SEEDS. You have just been hired as an executive assistant but you will also be assigned various other duties to keep you busy. Company Objective :To develop new varieties of maize, beans, and cereals that have agronomic or other traits that are valued by both agricultural producers and end users. :Some examples of desirable traits might be high yield (Agricultural Producers); area in which the plant can be grown; number of ears per maize plant; flour,flint or dent maize kernels (Machine harvest and Wet or Dry Milling); seed size (canned beans 18g/100 seeds);nutritional content (E.g. high lysine maize); cob colour (?cosmeticians);cold tolerance; disease resistance and pest resistance. Maize Goals :Create new early maturing hybrid varieties of maize for the local area. :Adaptation of maize varieties to local long day environment :Creation of pure line maize inbreds :Crossing of inbreds to create new hybrid varieties :Evaluation of new hybrid varieties in Yield Trials *Valuable Final Product(VFP): Plant Breeders' Rights to maize inbreds with desirable genetic traits and the licensing and sale of these maize inbreds and their hybrid combinations. The adapting maize is grown in small isolated plots in fields scattered throughout the local region. It’s usually referred to as a POPULATION with a specific family name. E.g. The LEAMING POPULATION, The R8W (pronounced ‘R eight way’) POPULATION or the LANCASTER POPULATION. There are about a dozen of these POPULATIONS. A few of the POPULATIONS such as the MIDLAND POPULATION are no longer being grown in an isolated field but are being grown in what is called the SIBBING NURSERY. :For each crop type, the Company also maintains blocks of rows that are referred to as NURSERIES. These nurseries are usually all in one field that I will refer to as the MAIN SITE.The INBREEDING NURSERY is a maize nursery where inbred maize is grown in rows and is selfed for about 7 years. After that time, the inbreds are grown to maintain a seed stock of what is called a PURE LINE. The SIBBING NURSERY is a maize nursery in which material belonging to the same maize family is crossed together within a block of rows. Selected ears from the Sibbing Nursery will be put in the Inbreeding Nursery to be selfed. :There are several isolated fields of maize grown offsite known as CROSSING BLOCKS.They are used to cross maize plants together by detasselling all of the plants in the field except a designated pollinator (male) and only allowing that pollinator to shed pollen on all of the detasselled inbreds (females). :There is usually a block of maize rows on the main site referred to as the HAND CROSSING BLOCK. The material in this block is crossed together by hand and the tassels are not removed. :There are YIELD TRIALS grown for each crop type. The maize YIELD TRIALS are grown in a large block usually of 2 row plots but sometimes there have been long 4 row strips grown that are called STRIP TRIALS. :There may also be WINTER NURSERY AND CROSSING BLOCK work done in another hemisphere during the winter months. Seed will need to be shipped immediately after it has been inventoried and packaged. Information on flowering dates and instructions regarding the work to be done will also have to be sent. Beans Goals :Create and select new bean varieties :Crossing of bean varieties to create new varieties :Selection of desirable bean plants from segregating material :Growing and roguing bean varieties until pure :Evaluation of new bean varieties in Yield Trials *VFP: Plant Breeders' Rights to sell and license pure lines of high yielding, disease and pest resistant beans. :The BEAN NURSERY is a nursery in which bean plants are grown in two-row plots, rated and selected from. There are also BEAN OBSERVATION ROWS grown to increase available seed of bean varieties grown in the BEAN NURSERY and to continue evaluation of the varieties. :THERE are two types of BEAN YIELD TRIALS grown.The BEAN YIELD TRIALS have been grown in long two and four-row plots, sometimes about 200 ft. long and sometimes only about 100 ft. long separated by a path at the center. The other type of BEAN YIELD TRIAL is the SOLID SEEDED BEAN YIELD TRIAL which is planted with a grain drill. :Crossing work for the beans has usually been done indoors during the winter months but occasionally it was done in the field with limited success. Barley and Triticale (Cereals) Goals :Create and select new cereal varieties :Cross different varieties together :Select heads of desirable cereal plants from segregating material :Grow and rogue new cereal varieties until pure :Evaluate new cereal varieties in Yield Trials :Development of forage Barley and Triticale lines *VFP: Breeders' Rights to the licensing and sale of high yielding, nutritious forage barley and triticale lines for use as animal feed. :The Triticale and Barley material is usually referred to by the type of plot that is grown. There are HEADROWS that are about 6 ft. long and about 6 in. wide with a gap of about 1 ft to 2 ft between each end. These are plants grown from the seed of a single head. There are also very long rows called OBSERVATION ROWS separated by a 1 ft. to 2 ft. gap. These are usually a bulk of seed from a single headrow that is being grown to increase the amount of seed available so that the variety can be grown as a YIELD TRIAL. The CEREAL YIELD TRIALS are planted with a grain drill and are grown in strips about 6 ft. wide and maybe 50 ft. long, separated by a space of about 3 ft. There are also similar plots that grow seed of different cereal families that are called GERMPLASM PLOTS. :The cereals were usually crossed in the field but this can also be done indoors. There may also be SEED PRODUCTION FIELDS for each crop type where seed of a variety is being grown to increase seed for sale to a seed company or producers. These notes don’t include information regarding the seed production fields. Yearly Work Cycle Gannt Chart TO BE CREATED Local Area (latitude 49 N) Cereals Seed Preparation:mid to last week of April Planting: Planted before Maize.Possibly last week of April but usually first or second week of May. Pollination in field: June or July Harvest: mid to late August. Shipment to sites in opposite hemisphere:possible Maize Seed Preparation: Seed of females for Crossing blocks can be prepared early in January to March. Most of work done from March to the first week of May. Planting: Depending on weather and soil conditions. Mainly 2nd week of May with some material for isolated populations planted early in first week of May. Order of Maize planting is: A few Isolated Adapting Populations, Yield Trials, rest of isolated adapting populations, Isolated Crossing Blocks, Inbreds, Hand Crossing Block, Sibbing Nursery.All maize material should be planted before end of May. Pollination in field: Approximately first week of July to about first week of August. Harvest: Isolated Populations based on maturity (usually around 2nd or third week of September).Inbreds about end of September.Yield Trials harvested just prior to Thanksgiving (first week of October). Shipment to sites in opposite hemisphere: Mid September Beans Seed Preparation: Possibly early work in Jan.- Feb. Mainly March to May. Planting: Third week of May to first week of June Planting (Greenhouse): About mid November or early December. Pollination in field: around July Pollination in greenhouse: Usually in about January or February. Harvest: late August to first or second week of September. Shipment to sites in opposite hemisphere:possible Staffing A permanent core staff is suggested of about 4 - 6 people. The shoestring budget work was done with 2 permanent staff members and half a dozen temporary workers to assist with thinning, pollinations, and harvest work. Administrative Staff: :*Facility/Project Manager: :*Plant Breeder: Can be offsite as an advisor. It is best to let this person excel in observing the plants and thinking about and devising ways to improve the germplasm.There is some benefit in occasionally involving the Plant Breeder in manual field labour as part of observation work. :*Secretary/Executive Assistant/Data Entry Clerk/Database Administrator/Financial Book Keeper Field Technicians: :*Tractor Operator :The Tractor Operator's expertise should encompass not only the operation of the tractor and use of field implements but also an extensive and integrated Agronomic knowledge and wisdom. :*Planter(s): :*Thinners: (until a vaccuum planter is purchased) :*Detasselers/Pollinators/Staplers: :*Harvesters: :Those half million dollar combines sure look nice! :*Shellers/Packagers/Inventory clerks/Shippers Teamwork See Ch. 10: TEAMWORK, "Observing the Universe: A Guide to Observational Astronomy and Planetary Science", edited by Andrew J. Norton, The Open University, Milton Keynes * Eventually, this reference will be put in the discussion section.An excellent example of the pragmatic type of material I would like to see in this HowTo Wiki. from the bookfair catalogue at http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521603935 "In this book, we will discuss a variety of aspects of astronomy and planetary science, with the aim of providing a sound basis for tackling projects in practice." I added the bolded characters for emphasis. *The square brackets in the quotes above and below have been added to denote words that could be replaced with other words related to plant breeding and plant breeding operations. "Observing Universe introduces a range of techniques and skills that will be useful for those wishing to undertake observational work in and planetary science. It covers the principles of and detectors, photometry and spectroscopy, microscopy techniques for analysing samples, teamwork skills, planning for a at an observatory, keeping records of what you do, estimating uncertainties in measurements, analysing data numerically and graphically, and producing a written report. Fully self-contained, this is a valuable guide for students of astronomy and planetary science, and serious amateur astronomers." :Part 1: Techniques :Part 2: Skills Supervised Agricultural Experience :Georgia (more to add here) *NOT CHEAP LABOUR Memory Practices in the Sciences by Geoffrey C. Bowker :Hu Cards - scanned in but not accessible